11 Facts About Ii Naotora

Ii Naotora was a daimyo of the Sengoku period and head of the Ii clan, a feudal samurai clan of medieval Japan.

The "Ii clan history" record which is preserved in the Shizuoka central library was the oldest source supporting the theory that Jiro Hoshi, was a female Ii Naotora were from secondary material which first appeared in mid Edo period.

Researchers from Hikone Castle Museum deemed the "Ii clan biography" which contains the theory about Ii Naotora being female as unreliable as it was based on folklore and not actual historical records.

Ii Tatsuo, the director of the Ii museum in Kyoto which preserved those documents, favored this explanation that Ii Naotora was not a woman named Jiro Hoshi, but instead a male retainer of the Imagawa clan named Sekiguchi Ujitsune, who had been bestowed the fiefdoms of the Ii clan.

Ii Naotora supported the theory that Ii Naotora and Jiro-Hoshi were the same people but male, based on the evident confusions of previous historians about the identity.

Daimon added that while a woman could become head of clan in certain situations, it was an extremely rare case, and Ii Naotora was unlikely to be one of them.

Ii Naotora became a priestess, and was named Jiro-Hoshi aged ten by Nankei.

Ii Naotora was responsible for the development of agriculture and the substantial expansion of the domains of her clan in the region of Enshu.

Michifumi Isoda, professor of International Research Center for Japanese Studies instead offered a synthesis theory which differ from the "Ii clan Biography", that both female Jiro Hoshi and male Ii Naotora both existed as different person, and became head of Ii clan on different occasions.

Ii Naotora was presumed to have difficulty securing clan leadership because of the innumerable resistances from the Imagawa clan retainers.

Ii Naotora escaped to Ryotan-ji Temple in Hamamatsu, and later sent Naomasa to Ieyasu and sent Naomasa to his care.